I don't find FTWD fascinating at all, the story adds nothing, there is little or no tension / action in it and the characters are sleep-inducing and irritating. I'm definitely not going to watch the 2nd season, not comparable to TWD, but I will wait for that and skip FTWD for rehashing.
I totally agree, especially about those annoying characters and that slow fuss when you need to hurry. .... but, that's what I thought of TWD 6 years ago and here, I haven't missed a single episode of this yet.